John Delacourt

July 26, 2023

As soon as the rumours about a cabinet shuffle began to gain momentum this summer, the hot takes decrying the significance of today’s changes were all too familiar: talk of who was going where was really just a kind of torqued up office gossip, and these changes matter to no one outside the bubble. And why should they be accorded any greater significance, because all decisions are really centralized within the PMO, aren’t they? It’ll be right back to ‘carry on, as you were’ by tomorrow.

Well, for those ministers either coming in to a cabinet role for the first time or for the chiefs of staff moving into new positions, however, such takes are, at least from my experience, the worst you could heed or take seriously. There will be many words written by the media about how today’s rites at Rideau Hall represent a “strategic reset,” but the real opportunity for anyone in a new leadership role is how to make of today a reaffirmation of the foundational part of governing here in the capital: it’s about the people, first and foremost, and the working culture you create.

Herewith, by way of a few considerations, is a short memo to this point.

1. There are really two mandates for each minister.

There will be many tributes written to Carolyn Bennett upon her departure from cabinet – more than a few have already been shared on social media. This writer got some insight into what made her so widely regarded almost twenty years ago, when she was first appointed to cabinet with the new Martin government as Minister of State for Public Health. The night she was able to share the news, friends held a small gathering for her to celebrate. I was just in my first job on the Hill, and more than a little intimidated by the group of politicos and wonks assembled in the room. Bennett seemed to intuitively realize others might also be feeling the same way and, in an inspired moment, announced that she was going to give each one of us a piece of paper to write down what we wanted her to do in her new role. Each suggestion would then go into a bowl and she’d read them out for us all. Such a simple gesture, a bit like a parlour game really, and yet it was pitch perfect. It told everyone that no matter what was in her mandate letter there was another mandate that she took as seriously: the responsibility to those ‘who brung her,’ and by extension her family, her friends and her constituents. The new job is one thing; who you’re in it for dictates the mandate no one else can write for you.

2. Work to erase the line down the middle of the boardroom table.

Not long after, when I was working for a minister, I lived through my first shuffle. I found out, late at night, that I would be in a different building with a different title on the other side of the Chaudière bridge. Once I had found my new office, adjusted the chair and pulled up the blinds to take in the view, my good friend and colleague in the office beside me knocked on my door and told me to come with him. We were going one floor down to meet everyone in the department who would be working with us. He didn’t even have to say why, I got it; if this was at all jarring and a little daunting for us, imagine what it was like for them.

That introductory visit brought home the most valuable piece of advice I received when I went into a minister’s office; a true, collaborative rapport had to be established with those who sat on the other side of the boardroom table every day. From deputy minister all the way down to executive assistant, the art of policy design and good legislation requires that give-and-take, and that abiding mutual respect that flourishes when strategic considerations are weighed in the balance of the institutional memory and the policy strengths everyone ‘on the other side’ brings to the conversation.

And of course, that line is in itself a questionable distinction. The deputy minister who exemplified a both-sides-of-the-table perspective was Janice Charette, who I was lucky enough to work with and learn from years before her role as Clerk of the Privy Council. Her own bona fides as former chief of staff to Jean Charest were never mentioned; she so elegantly — and eloquently — transcended all partisan considerations with her expertise and leadership. However, she could read the room like no other because she mastered both playbooks. The more one works in government, the more one realizes there are many who’ve crossed over. The opportunity is to learn from them, and to gain — and honour — that perspective. That’s truly governing for everybody.

It should go without saying that we’re talking about literally being in the room too. With this shuffle, it might be time to bring all staffers back to Ottawa. If you want to know one big reason the public service resisted coming back into the office after the pandemic, it was working with chiefs of staff and advisors who deigned to visit Ottawa only when necessary, rather than committing to being in the same building with departmental staff most days.

3. There can be many lives in politics.

It is likely that with a reset this ambitious, there will be many staffers looking for work. Some will be marked as no longer on anyone’s A list. Unfortunately, two factors play into this: 1. Emerging out of the pandemic conditions, and the siloed nature of how we’ve been interacting, mostly on screens, opinions of people are formed second rather than first-hand, and they’ve taken on too much currency. 2. And worse, it’s an evergreen issue that partisan politics — of all stripes — does HR very badly. Ask anyone if they’ve ever been taken aside and asked by a superior, what skills do you want to develop? Where do you want to be in one year? Two years? One well-known chief of staff for a premier once defined a staffer’s role as twofold: be effective, and make your minister look good. Unfortunately, the collateral effects of second-hand opinions and bad HR practices make for career-limiting misinformation about people and a collective corrosion of morale.

So, staffing up, when hearing of someone who is now without work, and inquiring of their performance, it might be wise to ask a few more probing questions: 1. What has been your experience with this person, unmediated and in a different context? 2. Was there an actual org chart in their last office, with clear roles, responsibilities and expectations? 3. Crucially, was it actually implemented, or did everyone’s roles devolve into issues management, self-appointed key message development and Twitter shit-posting? If we do office politics badly, is it any wonder politics writ large suffers as well?

Now is the time to take the opportunity and do a true reset. Both micro and macro. The benefits of second chances and true leadership have never been more apparent, or needed.

Contributing Writer John Delacourt, Vice President at Counsel Public Affairs in Ottawa, is a former director of the Liberal research bureau. He is also the author of three novels.